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Boxing is a cruel mistress. One skewed decision, one hard punch, and everything can change.

Gary “Kid” Stark Jr. discovered that the hard way for the second time in three months.

The Staten Island native dominated Colombia’s Andres Ledesma for 4 ½ rounds of last night’s main event of DiBella Entertainment’s Broadway Boxing card at Manhattan Center. Stark controlled the fight with his jab and assorted combinations, and even floored Ledesma in the third round of a scheduled 10-round junior featherweight bout.

Then Ledesma landed a single right hand and Stark crumpled to the canvas. He was counted out at 2:08 of the fifth round, leaving the packed house in shock. This came on the heels of Stark’s controversial loss by decision to Mike Oliver in February.

“I’m very upset for Gary,” promoter Lou DiBella said. “It just goes to show you that this is a very dangerous way to earn a living, and if you turn your head for one second you can get caught.”

Though Stark was in control of the fight, his cornermen and DiBella stablemates constantly implored him to keep his hands up, which he usually does. When he didn’t, he paid the price.

“He’ll come back from this,” DiBella said. “He’ll be OK.”

Stark (18-2) was too distraught to speak to the media.

Ledesma, who verbally agreed to a rematch, broke a four-bout losing streak and improved to 14-5 (9 KOs).

“I came in here to win,” Ledesma said through an interpreter. “I was losing, but I was starting to get it together, and I knew I was going to win – the way my career has been going, this is the biggest and best victory of my career.”

Earlier, in a super middleweight bout, James “Buddy” McGirt Jr. (15-0, 8 KOs) won a near-shutout decision over Brad Austin (8-3, 5 KOs). Austin was knocked down once in the fourth and once in the eighth, and was wobbled a couple of other times. But McGirt was unable to finish him. Scores were 80-70 and 79-71 (twice).